Thursday, July 31, 2014

Budget Restraints On Kurdish Peshmerga Making It Difficult To Secure Iraq’s Disputed Territories

The Kurdish Peshmerga are in a tense standoff with the
Islamic State across northern Iraq. When the Iraqi Security Forces (ISF)
collapsed after the fall of Mosul the Peshmerga moved into the disputed
territories that had been abandoned by the police and army. One such place was
Jalawla in Diyala, which locals had complained about for years as being an
insurgent hotbed. The Kurdish forces have tried to clear the area, but they
have been constrained by budget problems.

The Peshmerga have tried to secure Jalawla but have not been able to because of budgetary constraints (NY Times)

The Peshmerga have found it difficult to secure Jalawla,
because they don’t have the money to sustain their efforts. June 12 as the insurgents
swept across northern Iraq and the Iraqi security forces melted away the Kurds
moved into Jalawla, which they had longed claimed as historically part of
Kurdistan. Kurds had been targets of militants there for years. Just before the
fighting started in Mosul for example the Islamic State (IS) launched a
car bomb and suicide bomber against the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
offices in the city killing
20 and wounding 66. Then when the Peshmerga moved in they immediately got
into gunfights with the IS starting on June 13. According to press
reports at least 47 Peshmerga have been killed in Jalawla and another 90
wounded along with several civilians since then. That caused around 200
families to flee the area to escape the violence. July
24 the district director claimed that two areas had been
cleared, but the Kurdish forces could only stay there for a few hours because
they ran out of ammunition. Three days
later it was reported that IS fighters were infiltrating back in. The quick
security operation and then withdrawal from Jalawla was caused by the budgetary
crisis that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is suffering from. In
January Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki withheld the regions’ share of the
national budget to punish it for its independent oil policy. While the regional
government has received some loans and two months worth of salaries from
Baghdad since then it still does not have enough funds to cover its sizeable
costs. That has impacted the security forces as they must now cover a much larger
territory and expend more money on supplies and equipment. As one Peshmerga
commander told
the Washington Post his unit was only allowed to fire upon insurgents if
they were shot at first because they had to save ammunition. The effect has
been that the Peshmerga are able to hold their current positions, but they are
not be able to carry out any kind of sustained operations past that line, which
is why Jalawla is still so violent.

Both the central and regional government are facing a
growing threat from the insurgency, but their political disputes are keeping
them from cooperating. The two sides should be working together to help secure
the country and take back all the territory that has been lost since June.
Instead, the Kurdish parties and Premier Maliki are still arguing over oil, the
budget, and the prime minister’s attempt at a third term. The result is that the
militants have been able to solidify their hold upon the territory they conquered
and threaten places like Jalawla. This is just the latest sign that the
political elite is more interested in their petty disputes than the welfare of
the country. Not even the de facto division of the country has been able to
overcome these divisions and the people are suffering for it.

SOURCES

AIN,
"2 Peshmerga officers killed, injured northeast Baquba," 7/15/14

-
"3 ISIL elements killed northeastern Baquba," 6/18/14

-
"5 Peshmerga elements killed, injured northeastern Baquba," 7/19/14

-
"7 Peshmerga elements killed, injured northeastern Baquba," 6/29/14

Alsumaria, “The displacement of nearly 200 families from the
neighborhood South Jalawla controlled by “Daash,”” 7/16/14

- “Jalawla announce its purge of the armed groups,” 7/24/14

-
"Prominent sniper of Naqshbandi killed and wounding of three Peshmerga in
clashes northeast of Baquba," 7/13/14

Iraq History Timeline

About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. I have written for the Jamestown Foundation, Tom Ricks’ Best Defense at Foreign Policy and the Daily Beast, and was responsible for a chapter in the book Volatile Landscape: Iraq And Its Insurgent Movements. My work has been published in Iraq via NRT, AK News, Al-Mada, Sotaliraq, All Iraq News, and Ur News all in Iraq. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 5, Radio Sputnik, CCTV and TRT World News TV, and have appeared in CNN, the Christian Science Monitor, The National, Columbia Journalism Review, Mother Jones, PBS’ Frontline, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the Institute for the Study of War, Radio Free Iraq, Rudaw, and others. I have also been cited in Iraq From war To A New Authoritarianism by Toby Dodge, Imagining the Nation Nationalism, Sectarianism and Socio-Political Conflict in Iraq by Harith al-Qarawee, ISIS Inside the Army of Terror by Michael Weiss and Hassan Hassahn, The Rise of the Islamic State by Patrick Cocburn, and others. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com